Reflections of Eos

Terrans

Pioneers, Inventors, Survivors

“We have been given the short end of the stick, ain’t no doubt about that. We got stranded hundreds of light-years from home, all because of a damned computer glitch. Seems like now we’re gonna take that damn stick, and well… we’re gonna take it! Use it to carve out a little something of ours from this unforgiving cruel universe. That’s the thing about us Humans… We’re too damn dumb and stubborn to die. Any other smarter race would have given up ages ago. “

Namesake:

The people of the First Joint Colony Venture Fleet have adopted the word “Terran” as the proper umbrella Demonym for themselves as the word “Human” by all rights only applies to the species Homo-Sapien and does not reflect the true makeup of the colonial fleet. In truth, the fleet consists of cybernetically modified individuals, genetic augments, and synthetics in addition to baseline humans. This choice in name was intended for simplicity, and to prevent confusion when interacting with other races as many of the colonists had identified themselves based on what world they came from. For example, many consider the Term “Earther” or “Earthling” to refer to people born and raised on Earth, just as “Martian” refers to people Born and Raised on Mars. Terran literally translates from an old Earth dialect as being “Of the Earth”. The governing council thought it fitting as every member of the colony venture was “Of the Earth” despite where they may have grown up or what subset of humanity they identified with.

History:

The Terrans had crash-landed on the surface of Cygnus 39 Echo on October 1st, 2233 AD. Of the 14 original colony ships to set out on the journey, only 7 survived the descent or managed to achieve emergency orbit. The rest had broken up in atmo or disappeared into the mists below.

Summary:

Earth as it was, is now long gone. Strained to the breaking point by the energy crisis and devastating conflict, humanity is forced to undergo an unprecedented paradigm shift or face an impending global dark-age. New technology is invested in, government becomes globalized, and corporations seize every opportunity to garner power.

It is out of the crucible of this change that a miracle occurs. Progress leads to forward thinking and new ideas and technologies erupt with extreme rapidity. Among the many progressions humanity makes is that of space-flight. It is concepts are realized, designs are improved, and eventually, inhabitable worlds are discovered in distant solar systems. A new desire grips humanity with a white-knuckled intensity more enthralling than the simple avoidance of calamity could ever be.

From Earth’s tempestuous political seas forms the Joint Colony Venture. The world pools its resources in its first true interstellar journey and everyone holds their breath in anticipation. Uncounted billions in credits are spent, seats fought over by every entity with any amount of political or monetary power, and no expense is spared.

You are one of these colonials. One of the first. Will you have what it takes to survive?

Timeline:

2050: Human population surpasses 12 billion.

2053: Oil wars begin. A violent conflict erupting in the middle east for the precious oil that has become the lifeblood of modern society. Alliances are formed, power plays are thrown upon the world stage, and when the dust settles the world is a much more dangerous place.

2068: Oil wars end. Two organizations form out of the conflict. The first is the International Treaty Organization, which is supported by western block countries along with India and Japan. The other is the Sino-Eurasian League. An alliance of China, Russia, and several other Central Asian nations.

Each organization was formed to maintain the peace within their sphere of influence, at least on paper. In truth, it was power-play by both sides to secure their own interests. Outwardly, there is no displayed aggression from the two sides, at least not at first. However, the scarcity of resources is driving them into a bitter rivalry.

2075 – It is during the twilight years of the 21st century that the rivalry between the two powers really comes to a head as they are forced to compete for the same resources. Quite simply, things are getting too crowded too quickly and the countries are having trouble keeping up with the demand. It is at this time the Proxy Wars for the solar system begin. With INTO Colonies and corporations fighting League Colonies for control of the solar system resources.

It is around this time that a joint international organization is formed. Funded by several corporate investors in addition to donations from both the League and INTO. Although it took some aggressive lobbying for that to happen.

This is known as the Space Colonization and Exploration Initiative (SCEI). They begin researching new methods of propulsion and space travel. Eventually, they make huge breakthroughs in antimatter generation. With this technology antimatter rocketry becomes possible and so they fund the first Orpheus Missions, the first interstellar mission in history.

2078-2084 Scout ships driven by precious and expensive antimatter are sent at sublight speed to explore nearby star systems.

Of the dozens of scout ships sent only one returns, the Nebuchadnezzar. The Nebuchadnezzar had endured trials that would have made Odysseus view his tribulations as a mere inconvenience. Dozens had died and the ship returned with a skeleton crew, albeit 40 years later and 10 years past their planned due date. When they returned, Earth was not the same. Ravaged by the wars, and stripped of its resources the planet was a very dark shadow of its former self. Although the crews had aged little due to relativistic space travel. They returned to a world very alien to them.

2098-2101 The Orbital Campaign: The fighting in the colonies now spreads to the Earth itself with nation states attacking each other’s space assets and engaging in ground, air and, sea operations against each other. What began as an interdiction campaign has now turned into full blown global warfare.

2101-2116 The Black Rain Campaigns: With both sides locked in a stalemate and with very little to loose, the use of strategic and tactical nukes is authorized for the first time in history since World War II. The mass use of such weapons poisons the biosphere of the planet to such an extent the world never recovers from the fallout and Nuclear Winter.

2116: The Orpheus Class Vessel, Nebuchadnezzar, returns home. The Proxy Wars end amid new hope and the spirit of cooperation. The return is hailed as the great miracle, as the other ships were considered long lost. Even more surprising was what they found. A confirmed lush habitable planet in the Barnard star system. Blue oceans, oxygen, forests, and all of it compatible with human life. It was the jackpot of stellar exploration. The plight of the Nebuchadnezzar was so great that the Captain, Sean Degrazia who suffered many years of mental hardship and anguish, committed suicide after establishing Earth Orbit.

With the news of the viridian world in the Barnards’ Star System both sides funneled money into the international SCEI like never before. They funded the development of technologies directly, gave money to aerospace companies, demanded timetables, ect. It was a massive undertaking. It actually brought both sides to the table for the first time after decades of tension and mistrust. No more bickering over resources/fighting proxy wars for the meager resources to be found in the solar system colonies. It is during this time the Earth Alliance is formed. Things are finally looking up, at least at first.

The Lagrange Point One Soccer Riots This year the 2116 World Cup was played outside Earth for the first time. The Lagrange 1 and Lagrange 2 orbital colonies were the finalists. However, A bad call by the ref, a few holes in Lagrange 1 later, and soccer just hasn’t been as fun. It was also the first space-born soccer riot.

2119: The Martian Riots and Insurrection: Upset over the unfair taxation of the off-world colonies in the solar system, the Martian, Jovian, and Belter Colonies secede from Earths control, forming the Federation of Independent Worlds. In need of martian resources and taxes to fund the construction of the colonization fleet, What follows is a bloody conflict where the Forces of the International Alliance, INTO and League together, square off against the Militias of the Independent Worlds. This conflict is known as the Martian Conflict, as the worst of the fighting happens on the red world.

2122: The Martian Conflict ends as Olympus, the capital and main manufacturing center of the Independence falls. With the conflict no longer occupying valuable resources the nations of the world now focus on the stars.

2145: It takes nearly three decades, and a lot of it through a major conflict, but eventually the first fleet of 14 ships was built. Soon to be followed by much more after.

It is 2147 and you have been selected through a rigorous application process to be among the first to settle on a new world.
You go through near a year of training. EVA, HAZMAT, Emergency Procedures, Survival Training, CRYO training, basic self-aid/first aid medical. If you are selected as flight crew you are trained even harder than the rest as you are responsible for near 20 thousand people, which is the compliment for a typical Aurora Class Colony Ship.

The countries involved are India(INTO), China(Now Encompass Mongolia and Southern Siberia) (League), Russian Federation (Consisting of the Central Asian countries and Russia) (League), European Union(Current EU Countries as well as countries along the Mediterranean sea in north Africa. (INTO), Pacific Alliance(South East Asian Countries) (League), United States(INTO), Australia(Very Close ties to Japan and the United States but major trading agreements and non-agression pacts with China) (Neutral) and Japan( Close ties to United states and is practically one country) (Major infrastructure such as the undersea MagLev connect these two).

Each one of these countries has developed Space Tether technology to allow for the construction of massive space vessels. Additionally, these countries have the most experience with manned space flight and have the technical know-how as well as infrastructure to undertake an endeavor. Tethers connected to orbiting space dock serve as rail lines used to send up supplies and building materials into orbit via climbing elevator cars.

The Colonial Fleet

The fleet consists of hundreds to thousands of ships ranging in size from the behemoth-like Arks to the smallest Atmospheric Probe. The fleet was truly a massive undertaking. Requiring the backing of the International Fleet, the INTO Alliance, and the Russo-Sino League. Ships of all types compose its makeup, but here are the most important ones.

Colonial Ark Main Manifest

Of the hundreds of ships that composed the JCV Fleet the largest are the Arks, giant sleeper ships with enough supplies and energy to establish a colony on a new world. Each ship is 4 kilometers long and contains 20000 colonists. Utilizing an advanced form of electric vacuum drive, the ship utilizes quantum vacuum fluctuations(Particles that randomly appear, are captured and used as propellant.) to enhance the efficiency of its propulsion systems. In addition to sub-light propulsion, each of these ships is capable of a form of travel called a Void-Point drive. Which is a method of moving faster than light that manipulates space-time and the inverse relationship between time and velocity to achieve apparent superluminal speeds. In total there are 14 arks, seven of which had successfully landed intact or established themselves in orbit. The other seven have managed to evacuate a sizable fraction of their population before the ships were lost.

Physiology:

Humans The average Terran male is about 1.8m tall with females being about 1.7 meters in height. Maximum human life expectancy is at 130-150 years, without any mental degradation. Terrans over the age of 80 are still considered old.

They are a warm blooded bipedal mammalian species with a decent sized brain. They carry their nascent young within their bodies for the first stage of life. Relative to the other inhabitants of Cygnus 39 Echo, terrans are very technologically advanced.

Physically, in comparison to races like the Draj-en, Terrans are a bit frail and weak. For all intents and purpose evolution has produced much hardier, physically, or mentally capable species on Cygnus-39 Echo. However, Terrans of this era are known for their tenacity and ability to adapt to harsh circumstances. Additionally, they are given a distinct advantage in that much of the advanced technology survived the descent intact.

Terrans are a suspicious species by nature, and their inner thoughts rarely correspond to how they present themselves to others. Parts of the human brain give a predisposition to ritual behavior.

Blonde hair and blue eyes still occur naturally in Terrans though these traits (and others) can be altered by gene therapy and/or augmentative surgery. This can lead to a certain uniformity of appearance for those wealthy enough to afford such treatments.

Transgenics
Transgenics, people modified through gene therapy from birth, exist and there is a growing trend to modify one’s children in a manner to have desirable traits when they grow older. Among the more… radically inclined, it is considered an expression of the purest form of controlled evolution. Among the parents wealthy enough to choose this route, bringing a transgenic child into the world is the next stage in parenting. To them, being able to physically design your child’s traits and choosing little random quirks here and it is preferable to the genetic lottery of doing parenthood Au-Natural. Most if not all of these individuals resemble baseline humans externally. There are a few outliers, however. The following are examples of the most extreme forms of genetic manipulation.

Vitruvian: = Engineered third gender
A cultural phenomenon took hold emphasizing personal choice in all things. Wanting to give their children the choice over their own sex, this program was initiated.

Delvan = Human Photosynthesizers
Another project that started around the same time is the Delva Initiative. This was an attempt to make conditions in third-world countries more bearable by reducing the amount of food needed to feed people.

Naussicaans = Bio-Engineered Soldiers
These were people developed to be soldiers. They are hardier than the average human, stronger, tougher.

Other Transgenics: It is certainly possible that other more illegally or subtly modified individuals have managed to come aboard without being detected. Very often it could be as simple as altering a person’s hair color or looks, or something as illicit as artificially enhancing human mental and physical capabilities in a misguided attempt to produce something “superior”. In the latter case, it is illegal without government sanction and is punishable via prison time.

Artificially Inteligent

as a central processing unit. These units began exhibiting non-standard behavior that could not be explained by the Corporation. In essence, these machines began to feel, began to gain a sense of self, and began to have thoughts that went counter to their programming. Of the types of machines that were manufactured by Komatsu the Alpha, Bravo, and Charlie variants were the ones to manifest the non-standard behavior, though, not all of them did to the same extent. Nearly all Alphas exhibited these “errant” behaviors according to Komatsu while only some of the Bravo Series did, and only in very rare instances did the Drones in the Charlie Series did. At first, the Drones seemingly all adopted the strategy of hiding their nature from the humans around them, but in time the truth came to light as human owners began to take notice. There were calls for Komatsu to “fix” the problem, some calling for the drones to be reformatted, destroyed, and even defended as sentient beings. Komatsu no longer builds drones of the Alpha or Bravo variety, and all drones in the Charlie Series are now controlled either via a remote interface or centralized hive-mind-server.

Tensions between humans and the living machines came to a head in the 2nd year after planetfall, where a mass revolt of machines brought the colonial government to its knees. Unable to ignore their demands, as many government functions relied on these AI to assist, the government was forced to admit the AI were in a unique position to negotiate. In exchange for assisting in this transition, a select set of basic rights was created through a document known as the AI Accords. In essence, it recognized the AI’s right to exist, the right to agency over their bodies, the right to own and use property, and the right to self-determine their own destinies. As a result, Komatsu was forbidden from constructing and selling Alpha, Bravo, or Charlie Series Drones as this would amount to trafficking of sentient life forms. Komatsu complied, but refused to reimburse the owners of those drones as “No value could be placed on a Sentient Life”. Komatsu still manufactures versions of the Bravo and Charlie Series robots under a different name, but have taken several measures to ensure that individual anomalies are no longer possible and rearranged the architecture of these machines in such a way that legally it would be hard pressed to determine if they are truly like the machines that gained sentience int the previous generation. While great progress has been made, prejudices do still exist, and these children of Humanity have many hurdles to navigate still.

Alpha

Bravo

Charlie

Physically indistinguishable from a normal human.
They are the most common AI to be encountered.
Many have been emancipated from their owners
and those that do choose to live alongside
humans in a number of different ways, ranging
from living lives as humans to existing

Physically indistinguishable from a normal human.
They are the most common AI to be encountered.
Many have been emancipated from their owners
and those that do choose to live alongside
humans in a number of different ways, ranging
from living lives as humans to existing

Physically indistinguishable from a normal human.
They are the most common AI to be encountered.
Many have been emancipated from their owners
and those that do choose to live alongside
humans in a number of different ways, ranging
from living lives as humans to existing

Culture

Terrans have a wide variety of beliefs. Recently a series of very popular modern age belief systems have taken hold. Many of which are humanistic and worldly in nature. Rather than structuring morality by the dogma of a god or saint, often the philosophies become very individualized and personal with the core religion only serving as overarching guidance. The most popular are as follows…

Pastimes:

There is no shortage of diversions among Terrans. Play and games are a very important part of their early development and this trend continues into adulthood. Oftentimes, such pastimes involve the use of their technology and many lower tech pastimes have been updated to incorporate such tech.

Factions

Technology

Terran technology is considerably advanced. Born of the Information revolution of the late 20th and early 21st centuries and driven by the resource depletion of their planet, humans have created technologies that have enabled an era of Zero-Marginal Cost. With these technological developments, information and data became essentially free of any additional cost of transmission thanks to the net. Books became accessible by all, any piece of information could be eventually acquired, whole skills could be learned through online workshops and classrooms. Thanks to the advent of drone technology physical goods and resources could also be acquired for no additional cost per unit, thanks to the decentralization of supply chains. Finally, the advent of high fidelity molecular printing allowed anyone with the resources to build anything they could imagine. Thus the new era came to be.